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2026 White Paper Handwriting & Sentences

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Reading Universe: What is the Writing Rope?

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Reading Universe: What is the Writing Rope?

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Reading Universe | What Is the Writing Rope?

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Joan Sedita, the founder and CEO of Keys to Literacy, explains the five strands that make up The Writing Rope, a framework for writing instruction.

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We are educators, coaches, and advocates offering practical guidance on teaching reading and writing. Our work is research-based, empowering teachers with clear direction.

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Two Steps of Revising Writing Quick Video

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Two Steps of Revising Writing Quick Video

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Reading Universe | What are the two steps of revising writing?

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Listen to Keys to Literacy Founder Joan Sedita talk about the two important steps students need to learn in the revision process when writing.

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Reading Universe | What Early Writers Need

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Students need handwriting and spelling skills as well as the ability to express themselves when they write. See the expectations by grade for K-3.

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What is text structure, and why should teachers teach it? Text structure is unique to written language, and awareness of text structure supports both writing and reading comprehension. This post explores the different types of text structure that can be taught explicitly to support writing and reading, and recommends combining reading and writing instruction when teaching about text structure.

Benefits of Integrating Reading and Writing Instruction

In general, there is a strong case to be made for integrating writing and reading comprehension instruction. The Institute of Education Sciences 2017 research guide Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively (Graham et al., 2017) notes that reading and writing share cognitive processes, and point out Fitzgerald and Shanahan's (2000) shared knowledge model that "conceptualizes reading and writing as two buckets drawing water from a common well or two buildings built on the same foundation."

Reading Supports Writing: One of the guide's recommendations is to show exemplars of sample text to teach students the key features of text (including text structure, organization, grammar, spelling, use of literary devices, and sentences) for the three major genres of text (opinion/argument, informational, narrative) to help students write these types of text .

Writing Supports Reading: The Writing to Read report summarized the research evidence for how writing can improve reading. The report notes that reading and writing are both communication activities, and writers gain insight about reading by creating their own texts, leading to better comprehension of texts produced by others. The report's conclusion: evidence shows that having students write about the material they read enhances their reading abilities, including reading comprehension.

A Focus on Text Structure

As noted above, the goal of this post is to identify different types of text structures and how explicit instruction can support both reading comprehension and writing. Readers and writers who are familiar with text structure recognize how the information is unfolding (Akhondi et al., 2011). Duke, Ward, and Pearson (2021) note that a significant amount of research has examined the impact of text structure instruction. "We have long known that students benefit from instruction in common structures and elements of narrative or story text (e.g., identifying characters, setting, goal, problem, events, resolution, and theme). With respect to informational text, meta-analyses have also documented positive impacts." (p. 4)

Typically, when educators hear the term text structure, they think of the broader structures associated with the three major types of text identified in the I.E.S. report (opinion/argument, informational, narrative), or sub-types of text such as description, sequence, cause and effect, etc. which I address in items 1 and 2 below. However, there are several other types of text structure for which teachers should provide explicit instruction, addressed in item numbers 3 through 6. As you review the details for each type of text structure below, consider how instruction can integrate reading and writing in the same lesson.
#1: Three Major Types of Text: Opinion/Argument, Informational, Narrative

Comprehension: Discerning the overall organization and text structure of a text aids comprehension. This includes teaching students the goal and purpose of an introduction and a conclusion, which often identify for students the main topic(s) and central idea or theme of a text. It also includes teaching the differences between the organization of the body for opinion/argument, informational and narrative texts. Opinion/argument typically presents reasons supported by evidence, and sometimes a counterclaim and related rebuttal. Informational text typically organizes information in a hierarchy of main ideas and sub-main ideas supported by details. Narrative is typically organized around a series of events. Awareness of how information is presented in each type of text helps students organize what they are learning from the text.

Writing: Common Core and similar state standards address text structures such as introductions, conclusions, and body development in the three writing standards for opinion/argument, informational, and narrative writing. As noted earlier, the I.E.S. writing research guide emphasizes the value of having students study the structure of the three types of writing in mentor texts to help them apply knowledge of text structure to write these types of text.

Related Post: See my March, 2017 blog post Teaching Basic Argument Writing Components

#2: Patterns of Organization
Patterns of organization are another type of text structure. This includes the specific structures of description and explanation, sequence, cause and effect, compare and contrast, and problem and solution.

Comprehension: Text structure instruction provides students the knowledge and tools to process text into more coherent and organized mental schemata (Kintsch, 2013). When students can recognize a particular pattern they encounter in text, they are better able to locate and process the information they need for successful comprehension. Students benefit from explicit instruction and guided practice for how to recognize if a text is comparing two entities, presents a problem and a solution to that problem, and the other patterns of organization.

Writing: When students are composing, it is helpful for them to choose which pattern of organization best gets across what they have to say in their writing. This includes incorporating transition words and phrases associated with a particular pattern (see #3).

Related post: See my November, 2017 blog post Patterns of Organization

#3. Transition Words and Phrases
Sometimes called linking words, transitions connect sentences, paragraphs and sections of text. Some transition words or phrases are specifically helpful for signaling a particular pattern of organization. First, next, last are examples of sequence transitions; as a result, therefore, because of are examples of cause and effect. Many students with weak language and literacy skills do not automatically recognize transitions, understand what many of these words/phrases mean, or know how to use them when speaking or writing.

Comprehension: When students are aware of transitions while reading, they provide powerful clues to support comprehension. They are like signs when someone is driving, providing notice of what to anticipate in the road ahead.

Writing: When students include transitions in their writing, the message and ideas they want to convey are clear and organized. They can use the transitions to better convey to the reader what they want to say.

Related post: See my August, 2020 blog post The Power of Transition Words

#4 Paragraph Structure
Students need a solid understanding that a paragraph is structured around a main idea. Sometimes the main idea is stated, and sometimes it is implied and must be inferred. Students benefit from instruction about basic paragraph structure where the main idea is stated in a topic sentence and details are in sentences that support the main idea. The topic sentence is often at the start of a paragraph, but it may be found in the middle or end.

Comprehension: When students do not fully understand the structure of a paragraph, they miss helpful clues to making meaning when they read. When the text indents to start a new paragraph, it provides a signal that a shift in meaning is taking place within the text. The topic of the reading is the same, but the next paragraph has something different to say about that topic from the previous paragraph. Students benefit from explicit instruction where the teacher models how to determine the main ideas in paragraphs from sample text.

Writing: Students who do not attend to paragraph structure when writing tend to produce disorganized writing pieces. They should be taught to think about the main ideas they want to present and the best order to present them during pre-writing. A graphic organizer can help at this stage. While writing, students should be taught to indent when it is time to start a new paragraph, and to be sure that the reader will be able to determine the main idea by providing a topic sentence or sufficient detail so the reader can infer the main idea.

Related post: See my April, 2022 blog post The Mighty Paragraph

#5 Text Features
Text features such as a title and headings help identify the topic and overall organization of ideas in text. Headings represent sections of text, making it easier for readers to work their way through a longer piece of text in manageable chunks. Graphics and captions highlight important details and present an alternative visual representation to supplement and support the text. Mentor models that include obvious examples of text features can be used to teach text features.

Comprehension: Attending to headings helps break text up into smaller sections, and sometimes provides clues to the topic or main idea of a section of text. Learning how to use the information presented in graphics provides students with an additional way to access the content of what they are reading.

Writing: Students benefit from explicit instruction for integrating text features into their writing pieces. Especially for informational and opinion/argument writing, as part of pre-writing planning, they should determine the organization of their writing piece and identify logical breaks where adding a heading might be helpful for the reader. They should also determine if there are graphics that can be used to support the content and message of what they want to say.

#6 Sentence Structure
Longer, complex sentences can be a challenge for both reading and writing.

Comprehension: Instructional activities, such as sentence combing and deconstruction, help students develop the skills they need to "unpack" the meaning of a long sentence they read that has many ideas (propositions) embedded within a sentence.

Writing: These same activities, along with sentence elaboration practice, help students write more interesting, longer sentences.

Related post: See my related June, 2020 blog post Teaching Sentence Structure Part 1 and July, 2020 post Teaching Sentence Structure Part 2

Summary

Teachers of any grade or subject can play a role in developing students' awareness of the text structures described above. The texts that are used in every classroom provide opportunities for teachers to point out examples of the structures found in the three types of writing, patterns of organization and related transitions, paragraphs, and sentences, as well as how text features are used. If you would like to learn more about teaching text structure, watch the archived video of my November, 2020 webinar titled Text Structure to Support Comprehension and Writing. If you are interested in professional development that includes the topic of text structure, consider The Key Comprehension Routine or Keys to Content Writing. Access a one-page handout, The Comprehension-Writing Connection, that highlights language elements common to both reading and writing.
Additional Resources
References

Akhondi, M., Malayeri, F.A., & Samad, A.A. (2011). How to teach expository text structure to facilitate reading comprehension. The Reading Teacher, 64 (5), 368-372.

Duke, N.K., Ward, E.A., & Pearson, P.D. (2021). The science of reading comprehension instruction. The Reading Teacher. International Literacy Association

Fitzgerald, J., & Shanahan, T. (2000). Reading and writing relations and their development. Educational Psychologist, 35, 39-50.

Graham, S., and Hebert, M. A. (2010). Writing to read: Evidence for how writing can improve reading. A Carnegie Corporation Time to Act Report. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.

Graham, S., Bruch, J., Fitzgerald, J., Friedrich, L., Furgeson, J., Greene, K., Kim, J., Lyskawa, J., Olson, C.B., & Smither Wulsin, C. (2016). Teaching secondary students to write effectively (NCEE 2017-4002). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from the NCEE website: http://whatworks.ed.gov.

Kintsch, W. (2013). Revisiting the construction-integration model of text comprehension and its implications for instruction. In D.E. Alvermann, N.J. Unrau, & R.B. Ruddell (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (6th ed., pp. 807-839). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Joan Sedita

Joan Sedita is the founder of Keys to Literacy and author of the Keys to Literacy professional development programs. She is an experienced educator, nationally recognized speaker and teacher trainer. She has worked for over 35 years in the literacy education field and has presented to thousands of teachers and related professionals at schools, colleges, clinics, and professional conferences.

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Teaching Text Structure to Support Writing & Comprehension - Keys to Literacy

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What is text structure, and why should teachers teach it? Text structure is unique to written language, and awareness of text structure supports both writing and reading comprehension. This post explores the different types of text structure that can be taught explicitly to support writing and reading.

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Learn how to teach Writing a Simple Sentence Skill Explainer, when to teach the skill, how to build fluency, how to assess student learning & more.…

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Sentences and paragraphs are the building blocks of writing. One by one, sentences combine ideas to make meaning. Sentences related to the same main idea are grouped into a paragraph. Then, one by one, paragraphs combine to become text. In 2020, I devoted two posts to sharing suggestions for developing sentence writing skills (see Part 1 and Part 2). This post will focus on paragraph structure.

Why do I call it the "mighty" paragraph? Well, without a solid understanding of what makes something a paragraph, many students do not comprehend as well as they could when reading or write as well as they should. While it is assumed that paragraphs are taught in the early elementary grades, there are many older students who still do not understand how this component of text structure works.
Teaching the Concept of a Paragraph
First, students must learn that, fundamentally, a paragraph is a group of sentences that are related to the same main idea. A short piece of text may be organized into just one or a few paragraphs. Longer pieces of text such as an article may have a larger number of paragraphs that are grouped into sections. Even longer texts (such as a textbook) may have a very large number of paragraphs organized into sections and then chapters. Regardless of text length, the purpose and structure of a paragraph remains the same! As the topic of expository text is developed, a writer will constantly shift main points related to that topic. Likewise, as information unfolds in narrative text, the author will constantly shift main events. An indent (or in some cases a double-spaced line) is an author's way of signaling the reader that a shift is happening.... i.e., that the text is moving from one main idea to another.
Teaching Basic Paragraph Structure
Students benefit from explicit instruction about the basic parts of a paragraph, including the opportunity to analyze examples of well-written paragraphs. There are basically three types of sentences in a paragraph:

states the main idea of the paragraph

is sometimes placed at the start of the paragraph to let the reader know up-front the gist of the paragraph, but may also be written in the middle or end of the paragraph

sometimes the main idea is not stated as a topic sentence - the main idea is implied and the reader must infer it based on the information provided in the support sentences

provide details related to the main idea

the number of support sentences in a paragraph will vary

In the early elementary grades, young students are taught that a paragraph should end with a concluding sentence. However, in most multi-paragraph texts, while there often is a concluding statement for the whole writing piece, it is not necessary to have a concluding sentence for every paragraphs.
Color Coding to Emphasize Paragraph Structure
One technique that helps students focus on the structure of the paragraphs they read or write is color coding parts of a paragraph. For example, topic sentences are highlighted or underlined in green, supporting sentences in yellow, and concluding sentences in red.

First, the teacher shares examples of well-written paragraphs from mentor text. These samples can be individual paragraphs or a set of paragraphs from content related reading material. The teacher then uses discussion and think aloud to identify the parts of the paragraphs and color code them. Next, the teacher asks students to work collaboratively with peers to practice color coding additional sample paragraphs. Finally, students are asked to write and color code their own paragraphs. The first example below is from a textbook, the second is student writing.

Additional Activities to Practice Paragraph Structure
View the three additional kinds of activities that can be used to help students develop paragraph skills. The examples below are basic, but teachers can use more challenging paragraph samples selected from content reading material for practice.

As noted above, developing a stronger sense of paragraph structure supports reading comprehension. When students are aware of the purpose of paragraphs, they can be more meta-cognitive while reading as they attend to the "signal" the text provides that a new main idea is being presented. This is especially helpful when students are taking notes - they are better able to identify key main ideas and important, relevant details for their notes. For writing, the ability to write well-structured paragraphs goes a long way towards writing more organized writing pieces.
Related Resources:
For professional development related to writing instruction, see my Keys to Early Writing or Keys to Content Writing courses.

Additional Resources:

Joan Sedita

Joan Sedita is the founder of Keys to Literacy and author of the Keys to Literacy professional development programs. She is an experienced educator, nationally recognized speaker and teacher trainer. She has worked for over 35 years in the literacy education field and has presented to thousands of teachers and related professionals at schools, colleges, clinics, and professional conferences.

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Sentences and paragraphs are the building blocks of writing. One by one, sentences combine ideas to make meaning. Sentences related to the same main idea are grouped into a paragraph. Then, one by one, paragraphs combine to become text. In 2020, I devoted two posts to sharing suggestions for developing sentence writing skills (see Part 1 and Part 2).

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Transcription skills include spelling and handwriting, basic skills that are needed to transcribe the words a writer wants to put into writing. For students in upper grades, keyboarding in place of handwriting is also a transcription skill. Once students become automatic and fluent with spelling and handwriting, they can focus their attention on higher level composing. If students do not develop fluency with these skills by grade 3, this will put a constraint on writing development as they move into the later grades. One of the four main recommendations in the Institute of Sciences research guide Teaching Elementary Students to be Effective Writers (Graham et al., 2012) is to teach students to become fluent with transcriptions skills, including teaching young writers how to hold a pencil correctly and form letters fluently and efficiently, and to spell words correctly.
Spelling
In the primary grades (kindergarten through grade 3), students need to learn about orthography - how the English writing system works. This means teaching that letters and letter patterns represent the sounds of spoken English, which is called the alphabetic principle. It includes instruction to develop phonemic awareness (the ability to recognize individual sounds in words), to learn phonics concepts (how the sounds can be represented with letters), and to develop morphological awareness (knowledge of prefixes, suffixes, and base words). While many teachers consider spelling a writing skill, it is best taught during a phonics lesson. Decoding (reading words) is the process of converting printed words into their spoken forms. Encoding (spelling) is the process of using letter-sound knowledge to write words. What we teach for decoding is used for spelling, and spelling reinforces decoding, which is why an effective phonics lesson should include time to use dictation to practice spelling words that include the phonics concept that is the focus of the lesson.
Handwriting
Difficulty with handwriting can have negative consequences for later writing ability. Teaching handwriting should be an essential part of a beginning writing curriculum. Stephen Graham (2009-2010) explains it this way:
"Of all the knowledge and skills that are required to write, handwriting is the one that places the earliest constraints on writing development. If children cannot form letters - or cannot form them with reasonable legibility and speed - they cannot translate the language in their minds into written text. Struggling with handwriting can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy in which students avoid writing, come to think of themselves as not being able to write, and fall further and further behind their peers." (p. 20) "Young writers typically cope with the multiple demands of handwriting and composing by minimizing the composing process (planning, organizing, etc.). Because so much of their thinking must be devoted to forming legible letters, they turn composing into a knowledge-telling process in which writing is treated as a forward-moving idea-generation activity. A relevant idea is generated and written down, with each new phrase or idea serving as the stimulus for the next one. Mostly absent from this approach to writing are more reflective and demanding thinking activities such as considering the constraints imposed by the topic, the needs of the reader, or the most coherent way to organize the text." (p. 21)
There are three main aspects of handwriting instruction: pencil grasp, letter formation using writing strokes, and legibility. For instructional suggestions, see my previous post about teaching handwriting.
Grade Level Expectations for Composing and Transcription Skills
The charts below identify grade-level expectations for composing versus transcription skills. Keep in mind that within the same grade level there can be significant differences in spelling and handwriting ability. It is therefore important to differentiate instruction to meet individual student learning needs.

This post includes wording from my book Keys to Early Writing, available at the Keys to Literacy website.
For related blog posts, see: Additional Resources: References

Graham, S., Bollinger, A., Booth Olson, C., D'Aoust, C., MacArthur, C., McCutchen, D., & Olinghouse, N. (2012). Teaching elementary school students to be effective writers: A practice guide (NCEE 2012- 4058). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

Graham, S. (2009-2010). Want to improve children's writing? Don't neglect their handwriting. American Educator, Winter 2009-2010.

Joan Sedita

Joan Sedita is the founder of Keys to Literacy and author of the Keys to Literacy professional development programs. She is an experienced educator, nationally recognized speaker and teacher trainer. She has worked for over 35 years in the literacy education field and has presented to thousands of teachers and related professionals at schools, colleges, clinics, and professional conferences.

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Beginning Writing: Transcription vs. Composing Skills - Keys to Literacy

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Transcription skills include spelling and handwriting, basic skills that are needed to transcribe the words a writer wants to put into writing. For students in upper grades, keyboarding in place of handwriting is also a transcription skill. Once students become automatic and fluent with spelling and handwriting, they can focus their attention on higher level composing.

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The Writing Rope: Author Q and A - Keys to Literacy

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Since the publication of my book The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects in August, 2022, I have been asked to do several interviews for podcasts, webinars, and articles about the book. The book has also led to inquiries about how Keys to Literacy’s professional development courses are aligned with The Writing Rope. For this month’s blog post, I have collected questions and answers from these interviews.

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One of the hallmarks of an explicit, structured approach to teaching is to follow a logical sequence for teaching skills that progresses from basic to more complex, making sure prerequisite skills have been learned by checking for understanding before moving to the next step. This is often referred to as instruction that follows a scope and sequence. I am often asked to provide a scope and sequence for teaching writing, which is the topic of this post. But first, review these examples of common sequences:

A mathematics scope and sequence for teaching fractions typically follows this sequence: part and whole numbers, identifying parts of a fraction, equivalent fractions, comparing fractions, adding and subtracting fractions, multiplying and dividing fractions, and operations with mixed numbers.

A phonics scope and sequence progresses from teaching the most basic phonics concepts to the more advanced concepts, such as: common letter-sound correspondences (e.g., consonants and short vowels represented by one letter), digraphs, consonant blends, long vowel sounds, silent e, vowel pairs, vowel-r, and multisyllabic words with prefixes and suffixes. (see an earlier post with a detailed phonics scope and sequence)

A scope and sequence for teaching students how to identify main ideas progresses as follows: categorizing objects or words, identifying a paragraph main idea stated in a topic sentence, inferring a paragraph main idea that is implied, and identifying the central idea in multi-paragraph text.

What about writing?

First, it's important to recognize that writing instruction should address many skills and strategies. In 2018, I developed The Writing Rope framework to help educators identify the elements of a comprehensive and effective writing curriculum. Writing skills, strategies, and techniques are organized into five components represented as strands in a rope, depicted in the graphic below.

When I am asked to recommend a scope and sequence for writing instruction, the answer is not simple for several reasons:

There is no overall scope and sequence for teaching all writing skills, and the strands in the rope should not be taught in any particular order. The writing skills and strategies identified in the different strands must be taught at the same time. For example, in the early elementary grades, students are developing transcription skills (spelling, handwriting) at the same time they are learning how to write sentences and paragraphs, the differences among types of text, and beginning skills for writing about text. In the middle and high school grades, students are learning how to write more elaborated sentences and more complex paragraphs at the same time they are learning writing craft techniques and skills such as note taking and summarizing to write about text and subject-area content. The same is true for the three types of writing - informational, narrative, and opinion/argument writing instruction should be taught simultaneously rather than in a particular order.

Most writing skills and strategies need to be revisited each year, taught across multiple grades. For example, basic sentence writing skills are introduced in primary grades, but students benefit from continued instruction for writing increasingly more complex and elaborated sentences as they move across grades into high school.

A specific scope and sequence can be identified for a few categories of writing skills. For example, sentence writing instruction should begin with teaching the two basic parts of a sentence complete sentence (subject and predicate) and the four types of sentences (statement, command, question, exclamation), followed by instruction for gradually increasing the length and complexity of a sentence. However, most writing skills and strategies do lend themselves to a linear scope of sequence.

Sometimes when educators ask for a writing scope and sequence, they are referring to grade-specific writing requirements found in state literacy standards. Most of these standards identify categories of writing skills that include capitalization and punctuation, grammar, text organization and structures, and types of writing. A close look at these standards shows that many of these topics are repeated across grades represented by increasing levels of difficulty and sophistication. For example, a detailed guide describing writing skills that should be mastered by the end of a specified time period across grades K-12 is offered by the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN), based on that state's PSSA assessments. The guide points out that most concepts require multiple instructional exposures across grades.

Guidelines Based on The Writing Rope

More often, when I am asked about a writing instruction scope and sequence, educators want suggestions for when the skills and strategies identified in The Writing Rope should be introduced. I recently developed guidelines with a suggested instructional sequence for each strand of The Writing Rope. The guidelines suggest grade ranges according to three stages: grades when formal instruction and initial learning by students happens, grades when refinement of instruction and learning happens, and grades when ongoing and advanced use by students happens. As you review the guidelines below, keep in mind:

The suggested grade ranges are flexible. Some students will progress faster and some slower.

The guidelines are designed with students who have grade-level writing skills in mind. Students who have difficulty with writing may need more formal instruction at a later grade before they reach the refinement of instruction stage or the ongoing and advanced use stage.

If you are using the guidelines to develop a curriculum for teaching writing, consult grade level requirements in your state's literacy standards.

Integration of Reading and Writing
Also keep in mind that while the guidelines are focused on skills and strategies related to writing instruction, it is important to integrate reading and writing instruction whenever possible. Many of the instructional suggested in The Writing Rope and Keys to Literacy professional development programs (Keys to Early Writing, Keys to Content Writing) support the development of both reading and writing ability. Another recent post, Connecting the Ropes: Integration Reading & Writing Instruction), explores this topic in greater depth. For example:

Activities to improve syntactic awareness and knowledge of sentence structure help students comprehend long, complex sentences when they read and write longer, more elaborated sentences.

Instruction about main ideas and paragraph structure supports comprehension while reading and helps students write more organized writing pieces.

Instruction for critical thinking skills, such as note taking and summarizing, helps students understand text and learn content as well as improve their writing ability.

The Guidelines
A visual of the guidelines for the Transcription strand of The Writing Rope is shown below. The full set of guidelines for all strands is available in this PDF document.

Joan Sedita

Joan Sedita is the founder of Keys to Literacy and author of the Keys to Literacy professional development programs. She is an experienced educator, nationally recognized speaker and teacher trainer. She has worked for over 35 years in the literacy education field and has presented to thousands of teachers and related professionals at schools, colleges, clinics, and professional conferences.

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Writing Instruction Scope & Sequence - Keys to Literacy

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One of the hallmarks of an explicit, structured approach to teaching is to follow a logical sequence for teaching skills that progresses from basic to more complex, making sure prerequisite skills have been learned by checking for understanding before moving to the next step.

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Oral Language:  The Foundation for Reading & Writing Blog 

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Oral Language:  The Foundation for Reading & Writing Blog 

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What is your reaction to this quote attributed to James Britton (1970)?

Language skills and literacy achievement are highly correlated; research consistently demonstrates that the more children know about spoken language, the better equipped they are to succeed in reading and writing (Burns et al., 1999, Mehta et al., 2005, Pennington et al., 2019). The language children are exposed to at home and in school influences the development of their language comprehension, which in turn influences their fluency, vocabulary development and comprehension of written and media texts.

The development of oral languageskills through instruction combined with frequent exposure to rich oral language opportunities throughout the school day lays the foundation for learning to read and write. Effective literacy instruction must include teaching that fosters oral language development, especially for students who enter kindergarten with weak spoken skills and English language learners (Calderon, 2011).

What do we know about language? Dr. Pamela Snow notes the following (2024):

From birth to age 5, children learn that language consists of sounds (the first thing that babies can produce to communicate), words and word parts, phrases and sentences, and connected talk (discourse) in conversations, stories, and explanations.

Language uses symbols to represent meaning. Those symbols can be spoken words, written words, pictographs, or sign language.

Language is conceptual - it allows us to describe phenomena that are not physically present.

Language is rule governed (e.g., regarding word order, how to form plurals, etc.) and these rules are implicit (learned and expressed in an indirect way) for native speakers of a language.

Oral language is everyday talking (expressive) and listening (receptive/comprehension) skills and the mental representations that sit behind them.

Mental representations that are shared through oral and written language include thoughts, ideas, memories, opinions, beliefs, wishes, needs, and instruction.

How teachers talk with young students is important! As models of academic language for young students, it is essential that teachers speak with precision and in complete sentences that follow the rules of English grammar. Teachers must be conscious of their own language in the classroom, being careful not to over simplify the way they speak by purposely using basic vocabulary and simple sentences. Likewise, teachers should encourage students to use precise and extended language.

Receptive and Expressive Language

Receptive language (listening) is focused on input of oral language that we hear and then process in our brain. Young students who do not have well-developed receptive language may have difficulty with understanding questions, following directions, and understanding what is read aloud or what others say. Expressive language is focused on the output of oral language. Young students who do not have well-developed expressive language may have difficulty developing vocabulary, combining words to make sentences, and expressing their needs and wants. Several instructional suggestions for developing receptive and expressive language that are from the Oral Language module of the Keys to Beginning Reading professional development course are provided below.
Receptive Language: Teaching Listening Skills
Students benefit from explicit instruction, modeling, and role-playing for how to:

make eye contact when listening

be aware of non-verbal cues provided by the speaker

take turns and avoid interrupting

ask questions

An anchor chart in the classroom such as the one below can serve as a reminder to students to focus on whole body listening!
The Listening Ladder (Eisenhart, 2008)
This procedure can be used to highlight what a good listener does. Consider making a classroom poster that looks like the example below. Can you think of some visuals you might add to each step in this list as a scaffold for young children who are not able to read the words?
Expressive Language: Developing Discussion Skills
Many children, especially in the primary grades, face challenges as they learn how to express themselves and communicate with others in the classroom. The teacher plays an important role in helping students learn to share their ideas with partners, in small group discussion, or during whole class instruction. The goal for developing expressive language in these early grades is for students to speak in complete sentences using academic vocabulary, and be able to stay focused on the topic they are discussing. In the upper elementary grades, the goal is for students to use longer, more complex and elaborated sentences, use even more academic vocabulary, and sustain a discussion with multiple back and forth responses.
Using W Questions to Support Discussion
View the examples below of "W" cards that can be used as prompts to help students ask questions during discussions with peers and with adults. Notice that the words , , , , , and are added to help students generate a question. Large cards such as these for a classroom pocket chart can be used to prompt classroom discussions, or teachers can make smaller card sets to give to pairs or small groups of students. See the related blog post Teaching with "W" Questions for additional instructional suggestions.
Elaborated Discussion: Peer Conversation Cards
Students need to learn that a conversation requires a meaningful exchange between two people - both must follow the rules of turn-taking, listening, and responding. An activity using a set of three peer discussion cards can be used to teach and practice peer conversation skills. The cards include the words , Question, and as shown below. If you are working with younger students who are not able to read the words, you can replace the words with visual symbols that represent the words. Activity directions are provided below the graphic.

Print out sets of the 3 discussion cards on card stock. Ask students to work in groups of 3 and give each group a set of cards. For the first round, each student will take one of the cards.

The teacher gives students a topic for the discussion (e.g., a character from a recent read aloud, an interesting picture to react to, a topic such as a favorite movie or game).

The first student begins by holding up the Statementcard and makes a statement related to the topic.

The next student holds up the Question card and poses a question based on the first student's statement. If students need a scaffold, ask them to consider the who, what, where, when, why, how words for ideas about what to say.

The last student holds up the estate card and restates in his or her own words what the first or second students said.

The students switch cards and continue the process. The second- and third-round discussions can be about the original topic, or the teacher can provide a new topic for each round.

References

Britton, J. (1970). Language and learning . Coral Gables, FL: University of Miami Press.

Burns, M., Griffin, P., Snow, C. (Eds) (1999). Starting Out Right: A Guide to Promoting Children's Reading Success. National Academy Press. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/download/6014

Calderon, M. (2011). Teaching reading and comprehension to English learners, K-5. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Eisenhart, C. (2008). An introduction to oral language development: The foundation for literacy. PowerPoint presentation delivered at the Rhode Island Reading First Conference.

Mehta, P.D., Foorman, B.R., Martin, L., & Taylor, W.P. (2005). Literacy as a unidimensional multilevel construct: Validation sources of influence and implications in a longitudinal study in grades 1 to 4. Scientific Studies of Reading, 9 (2), 85-116.

Pennington, Bruce, F., McGrath, Lauren M. and Peterson, Robin L. (2019). Diagnosing Learning Disorders: From Science to Practice 3 Edition. New York: The Guilford Press.

Snow, P.C. (2024). Oral language competence is necessary but not sufficient for reading success. PowerPoint presentation. Plain Talk About Literacy & Learning Conference, The Center for Literacy & Learning.

Joan Sedita

Joan Sedita is the founder of Keys to Literacy and author of the Keys to Literacy professional development programs. She is an experienced educator, nationally recognized speaker and teacher trainer. She has worked for over 35 years in the literacy education field and has presented to thousands of teachers and related professionals at schools, colleges, clinics, and professional conferences.

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Oral Language: The Foundation for Reading and Writing - Keys to Literacy

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Language skills and literacy achievement are highly correlated; research consistently demonstrates that the more children know about spoken language, the better equipped they are to succeed in reading and writing (Burns et al., 1999, Mehta et al., 2005, Pennington et al., 2019).

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Quick Writes - A strategy to teach content writing

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Draw, Talk, Write & Share Observations Protocol

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Draw, Talk, Write & Share Observations Protocol

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Draw, Talk, Write and Share (DTWS) is a pedagogical approach resulting from research conducted by Noella over a 15 year time period (Mackenzie, 2011, 2014; Mackenzie & Veresov, 2013). DTWS is also a powerful observation process, allowing educators in preschool and early years classrooms to find out what children 'know and can do' (Mackenzie, 2011). Used for this purpose, it becomes a formative assessment task.

The following may be helpful: Mackenzie, N.M. (2022). Finding out what they know and can do with DTWS. Practical Literacy: the early and primary years, 27(1)

DTWS Observation Protocol

The DTWS Observation Protocol takes DTWS and uses it to allow an observer to understand what a young child knows and can do in terms of text creation from an early age. This observation process values three modes of expression: Drawing, Talking and Early Writing. DTWS allows an observer to note a child's current methods of self-expression - oral and drawing as well as their early engagement with writing in a conventional sense.

The protocol has been adapted from one developed and applied for research purposes by the author and is appropriate for use with children from ages 3-6 years.

The process can take between 5 and 25 minutes depending upon the age, interest and previous drawing and writing experiences of the children.

This process values young learners multiple and developing modes of expression (drawing, talking and writing) and understands that young children can create more complex texts using multiple modes than using only one. This can be seen when children are adding random letters or symbols, labels, or simple short phrases or sentences (perhaps using invented text) but can draw quite complex pictures and can talk at length about their ideas.

A downloadable PDF of the Mackenzie DTWS Observation Protocol

Want to read about DTWS as a pedagogical approach?

Read the blog post Draw, Talk, Write (and Share). There are others that may also be of interest.

PLUS

Mackenzie, N.M. (2022) Multimodal text creation from day 1 with Draw, Talk, Write, Share. The California Reader ( TCR) 55(1), 9-14.

Want to read about the research leading to DTWS?

Mackenzie, N.M. (2011). From drawing to writing: What happens when you shift teaching priorities in the first six months of school? Australian Journal of Language & Literacy, 34(3), 322-340.

Mackenzie, N.M., & Veresov, N.(2013). How drawing can support writing acquisition: text construction in early writing from a Vygotskian perspective. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 38(4), 22-29.

Mackenzie, N.M. (2014). Teaching early writers: Teachers' responses to a young child's writing sample. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 37(3), 182-191.

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The Draw, Talk, Write and Share (DTWS) Observation Protocol

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Draw, Talk, Write and Share Draw, Talk, Write and Share (DTWS) is a pedagogical approach resulting from research conducted by Noella over a 15 year time period (Mackenzie, 2011, 2014; Mackenzie & Veresov, 2013). DTWS is also a powerful observation process, allowing educators in preschool and early years classrooms to find out what children 'know...

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Easy to Print!

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This includes information of the PDF linked below, but also includes a video and additional links within the site.

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10 pictorial writing lessons with sentence-building benefits

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Here are 10 ways young writers can write in pictures in developmental writing stages. Teach them to communicate before they can write words.

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How to Teach Handwriting and Why It Matters

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How to Teach Handwriting and Why It Matters

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Teaching young students how to write by hand before moving on to keyboarding can help improve their reading fluency as well.

Technology is an undeniable fact of everyday life and can support students' learning. But there are limits to that: Completely replacing handwriting instruction with keyboarding instruction in elementary school can be detrimental to students' literacy acquisition. Why are handwriting and letter formation so important?

Research has demonstrated a correlation between letter-naming and letter-writing fluency, and a relationship between letter-naming fluency and successful reading development. There's a strong connection between the hand and the neural circuitry of the brain-as students learn to better write the critical features of letters, they also learn to recognize them more fluently. This recognition of letters leads to greater letter-writing fluency, which leads to greater overall reading development.

In an article summarizing several studies on handwriting and learning, the writer Maria Konnikova notes, "Not only do we learn letters better when we commit them to memory through writing, memory and learning ability in general may benefit." When students write letters manually, they learn them more effectively. Switching to keyboarding before students have developed handwriting skills may reduce their ability to recognize letters. Konnikova also cites a study that found that students who wrote by hand-as opposed to on a keyboard-were able to generate more ideas. Students with better handwriting demonstrated "increased overall activation in the reading and writing networks" of the brain.

How to Teach Handwriting

Learning how to print is a developmentally appropriate first step of handwriting instruction for students in grades pre-K to 2, in terms of their fine motor skills. Handwriting instruction does not require a big time investment: Brief lessons and frequent feedback for students can be incorporated in all areas of the curriculum throughout the school day.

There are four main aspects of handwriting instruction: pencil grasp, formation, legibility, and pacing.

Pencil grasp: When it comes to how a child holds a pencil, there are correct and incorrect grasps. The correct grasps-in which the index finger and thumb hold the pencil against the middle finger-result in comfortable and efficient handwriting, while incorrect grasps can cause poor letter formation and fatigue.

A student with a poor pencil grasp may benefit from using tools such as a pencil grip or from wrapping a rubber band around the ring finger and pinkie-not too tightly!-to fold them against the hand. You can also teach the "pinch and flip" trick: The student places the pencil with the writing end facing her, pinches the pencil between the thumb and index finger, and flips the pencil into the correct position.

Formation: This refers to how a student goes about forming letters. Straight lines are easier for students to write than curved ones, so it's developmentally appropriate to teach students to write capital letters before moving on to lowercase ones.

It's critical that handwriting instruction be integrated with phonics instruction: As students learn how to write the letters, they should also be learning and practicing the sounds that the letters make. Handwriting and dictation activities are the cornerstone of any multisensory phonics instruction program, as requiring students to consistently practice forming the letters while connecting them to sounds will serve to better embed phonics concepts in the brain.

For students who struggle with letter formation, explicit instruction is particularly important. Students should be taught to start their letters at the top (or middle, as is the case with some lowercase letters), and use continuous strokes as much as possible. Some letters will require them to lift up their pencils, and they should be taught when to do this. Using lined paper is helpful, as is giving students a variety of visual aids: arrow cues for stroke direction, dots for starting points, dotted letters for tracing, etc. Students also benefit from "skywriting" letters-tracing letters in the air with an index finger while holding their arm straight out.

The letters b, d, p, and q are often confused by younger students. Teaching the correct formation of these letters can help diminish the confusion, as they have different starting points- b, for instance, starts from the top, whereas d starts in the middle. Internalizing the motor patterns for these letters can help make recognition more automatic.

Legibility: An important factor impacting legibility is spacing between words. It's helpful to encourage students to use a "finger space" between words-right-handed students can put an index finger on the line after one word before writing the next one. This technique doesn't work for left-handed students, who will benefit from using a narrow tongue depressor as a spacing tool.

Pacing: If students are using an appropriate pencil grasp and forming letters correctly, that will often solve any pacing challenges. Another factor to consider when looking at pacing is the press: Students should not be pressing the pencil down on the paper too hard as they write because doing so can lead to writing fatigue and a greatly reduced rate of letter production. But if they press too lightly, it can be a sign of weak muscles or inappropriate pencil grasp. Encourage students to write with a variety of materials (markers, short pencils, crayons, erasable markers on whiteboards) to help them adjust how hard they press.

School days are packed with instructional priorities, and it can be easy to let handwriting fall by the wayside. However, with just a few minutes a day, students' letter formation skills can improve, leading to positive outcomes for overall literacy development.

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How to Teach Handwriting-and Why It Matters

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Teaching young students how to write by hand before moving on to keyboarding can help improve their reading fluency as well.

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The Writing Rope Guidelines for Instruction 

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The Writing Rope Guidelines for Instruction 

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The Writing Rope Guidelines for Instruction

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Edutopia Article: High Impact Writing Strategies for the Elementary Grades

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Edutopia Article: High Impact Writing Strategies for the Elementary Grades

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This article offers suggestions that are aligned with the instructional suggestions in Keys to Early Writing.

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Simple, effective exercises can help elementary students develop the foundational writing skills they need for their academic journey.

When considering writing as part of the instructional day, teachers may think only of the type of writing where students engage in storytelling or informational pieces. While the ability to leverage student choice and produce fiction and nonfiction text is beneficial for all grade levels, it's important to consider how writing can be incorporated and layered across all content areas, as well as develop the deep foundational understanding to prepare young writers for authoring texts.

For us as teachers, it's vital that we share a common language and understanding about the types of high-impact writing strategies that students can engage in and how to effectively implement them in the classroom.

1. Handwriting in the Early Grades

In the digital age, prioritizing handwriting education during phonics instruction remains instrumental in nurturing well-rounded learners and sets them up for success when more stamina is required of them. The tactile experience of handwriting establishes a profound connection between language and sensory perception, contributing increased cognitive development.

Teachers can adopt a common path of movement language (language used to describe how to form the letters) when teaching the letters. In addition to that, providing students with multisensory ways of forming the letters helps create a strong understanding of the letters' features.

A practical example of this type of instruction is having students trace a lowercase a in a tray full of salt, repeating the path of movement language, "over, around, down." Then, students practice writing the letter using a pencil or dry erase marker. As the teacher models the directionality, it's important to ensure that students know what "over," "around," and "down" mean and look like and that the teacher is using on-the-spot intervention for correction.

2. Dictated Sentences

Utilizing dictated sentences in elementary phonics instruction holds profound importance in nurturing early literacy skills. This strategy serves as a powerful bridge between decoding individual phonemes and comprehending them within a meaningful context.

For example, in a phonics lesson where students are practicing decoding and spelling words with a short i vowel and have practiced reading the high-frequency words they and the, the teacher may end the lesson with students writing the dictated sentence, "They will fill the big bin with wigs."

This method encourages the application of phonics knowledge in real-word scenarios, promoting fluency and automaticity. In addition, dictated sentences provide a valuable opportunity for students to hone their listening skills, enhancing their ability to discern and reproduce distinct phonetic elements accurately and to authentically apply irregularly spelled high-frequency words in context. This practice benefits students of any grade level working on phonics skills.

3. Writing to Read

Another foundational type of writing that prepares students for more demanding types of writing in later grades is writing to read. This is an interactive approach to early writing instruction where the teacher models early literacy and print concepts starting as early as prekindergarten through early kindergarten. Through collaboration with the students, the teacher models drawing pictures and sentence creation.

Teachers can start by engaging students in a conversation around an event in a book or nursery rhyme they read together. Then, the teacher offers a prompt: "In the story, the characters went to play at the park. That gives me an idea for a story. What kinds of things do you like to do at the park?" Students can share multiple ideas for the story, and the teacher chooses one to model.

While the teacher explicitly models drawing and develops a sentence about the drawing, the students offer ideas on where to start writing, count the words in the story, identify the sounds they hear as the teacher spells out each word, and notice where spaces will occur. The more that students engage in this type of instruction, the more responsibility we can hand over to them, and they can write the story along with us. As students are given more opportunities to apply early writing principles and rereading strategies, they begin to understand the reciprocal relationship between reading and writing.

4. Reading to Write

When the foundations for early writing have been established, students can quickly move into another layer of high-impact writing, which is writing about the texts that they're reading.

Even starting in kindergarten, encouraging students to write and/or draw in response to reading across multiple content areas is a valuable strategy that helps deepen comprehension and understanding of a particular topic, as explored in Linda J. Dorn and Carla Soffos's book Teaching for Deep Comprehension.

These "writing about the reading" prompts require students to analyze, synthesize, and connect ideas, fostering a deeper understanding of the material. For example, if first-grade students are working on story elements, after reading a story, a student might write, "The character in the story is a bear who lives in the forest. The problem in the story is that he is sad, but he solves his problem when he learns to be happy."

This expression encapsulates comprehension, language reinforcement, and academic vocabulary. As students progress through grade levels upward to 12th grade, the scaffold of giving the students a prompt for writing about the text should decrease as they develop enough self-regulation to write about their own thinking.

5. Writing About Learning

Similar to reading to write, this strategy is solely focused on writing about what the student has learned, why the learning is important, and when to use the learning. This type of writing can happen as early as kindergarten, but in a highly scaffolded manner that mostly focuses on articulating why the learning is important.

Students up to 12th grade can benefit from writing about their learning because it keeps the purpose of what they're learning in various content areas relevant and promotes quick retrieval of the information.

This strategy also promotes metacognition, because it helps learners organize their thoughts and reflect on their learning process. For instance, a second-grade class could collaboratively study the nature of bees in a nonfiction text. Then, because the teacher focuses on the skill of identifying and explaining main ideas and details, a student may write, "I learned the main idea by using headings and key details. Knowing main ideas helps us understand the most important information in a text."

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5 High-Impact Writing Strategies for the Elementary Grades

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Simple, effective exercises can help elementary students develop the foundational writing skills they need for their academic journey.

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Austin's Butterfly Drafts | Models of Excellence

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Austin knew that his goal was an accurate, colored scientific illustration of this butterfly that could be used for identification. But he was still just a first grader, without sophisticated art and fine motor skills, and importantly, without much understanding of scientific illustration.

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THINK & PLAN: Two Column Notes for a Paragraph

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THINK & PLAN: Two Column Notes for a Paragraph

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Written Response Template Matthew and Tilly

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Model Two Column for Sort Matthew and Tilly

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Matthew & Tilly Sort Category Cards (57 KB)

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THINK & PLAN: Two Column Notes for Patterns of Organization

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THINK & PLAN: Two Column Notes for Patterns of Organization

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Assorted literacy topics with resource links

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The scientific evidence base on how we learn to read and how to best teach reading has been growing and converging over 40 years. This includes brain imaging studies that show how our brains learn to read and underlying causes of why some students have difficulty learning read.

Sadly, teachers often do not have access to this evidence base. Many teachers report that their preservice education in college did little to prepare them for teaching reading. Many veteran teachers report a lack of quality professional development once hired that could help them improve their reading instruction. And for too long, the reading wars have confused teachers and administrators. These wars started in the 1990's when whole language advocates succeeded in convincing too many schools that learning to read comes naturally without the need for explicit instruction in decoding skills. Even today, there are many reading "experts" that say they promote a "balanced" approach to beginning instruction, but what that actually represents is a little bit of incidental phonics thrown in on top of the same approaches to reading instruction that have not worked for the past 25 years. The latest scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the nation's report card, were just released-and things aren't looking good for the country's young readers.

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Blog posts for best instructional practices for teaching reading and writing to students of all ages

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videos, archived webinars, articles, downloadable templates/printables

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Welcome to our Free Literacy Resources Pages

We do our best to include articles, links and templates that we feel are of value to educators interested in advancing their literacy knowledge, district/building strategies, and classroom practice. Please note that these files are copyright protected - contact us for permission to reproduce or distribute any of this content.
Videos & Webinars Templates & Printables Websites & Organizations

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Articles, links and templates for educators interested in advancing their literacy knowledge, district/building strategies, and classroom practice

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Main Website

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Professional Development That Makes a Difference!

Keys to Literacy is a leading provider of literacy teacher training, curriculum, ongoing coaching and materials to educators across the country. Keys to Literacy trained teachers learn the research-based skills necessary to effectively teach reading and writing in all subjects across all grades. Our professional development approach is highly participatory and engaging!

Teacher Training, Coaching, Train-the-Facilitator

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Literacy Professional Development - Keys to Literacy

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Keys to Literacy is a leading provider of literacy teacher training, curriculum, ongoing coaching and materials to educators across the country.

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Graphic organizers to plan.

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Blank graphic organizers.

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Writing Templates: Patterns of Organization

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Writing Templates: Patterns of Organization

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THINK & PLAN: Two Column Notes for the 3 Types of Writing

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THINK & PLAN: Two Column Notes for the 3 Types of Writing

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List to share with students

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Transition Words and Phrases for Primary Grades

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For students to complete.

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Anchor Chart

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To support revision.

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Research-Based Writing Practices

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Teaching Elementary Students to be Effective Writers

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A first grader in Arkansas who contact Old Navy about their pocketless girls' pants told TODAY Thursday she was surprised the company reached out to her after she wrote them a letter.

"I didn't think they were going to write me back because it took them awhile," said Kamryn Gardner, while noting she needs pockets to keep her hands warm and put things in them.

"I was very excited. As soon as we get back from our spring break vacation, the box was there. I thought it was a birthday present," she added.

The 7-year-old went viral this week after she used a school assignment to contact Old Navy to ask them to create girls' jeans with real front pockets. Kamryn's parents say writing that letter is in line with who she is as a person.

"We're very proud of her. She is a persuasive person," her dad, Brandon Gardner, told TODAY. "She loves to talk. She's always excited and I think you guys are just experiencing this for the first time, but we know this all the time."

"She's very passionate about learning and she just took this on her own and we are super proud of her for using her voice and speaking up," her mother added.

Gardner is a student at Evening Star Elementary School in Bentonville, Arkansas. A post on the school's Facebook page last week drew attention to her story.
Watch TODAY All Day! Get the best news, information and inspiration from TODAY, all day long.
"Earlier this year, first grade worked on writing persuasive letters. Kamryn, in Mrs. Jayne's class, used her classroom experience with persuasive writing when she decided that she was tired of buying girl jeans from Old Navy with fake pockets," the Facebook post said.

"She wrote Old Navy a letter and they responded! Not only did they write back, they sent her 4 pairs of new girl jeans with REAL pockets! The Old Navy Kids team thanked Kamryn for her feedback as they develop new product! Now, that's using your voice! Way to go, Kamryn!"

"Dear Old Navy," Gardner wrote in her letter. "I do not like that the front pockets of the girls' jeans are fake. I want front pockets because I want to put my hands in them. I also would like to put things in them. Would you consider making girls jeans with front pockets that are not fake. Thank you for reading my request."

The company replied with four pairs of girls' jeans with real pockets and a personalized response.

"Thank you so much for taking the time to write us about pockets on girl's jeans," Old Navy said. "The Old Navy kids product team appreciate your information. It's great feedback for us as we develop new product."

So, now that she got her jeans, the only question that remains is what grade did Gardner receive? We're betting on an A.
Related video:

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1st grader says she was shocked Old Navy responded to letter about pocketless jeans

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A first grader in Arkansas who contact Old Navy about their pocketless girls' pants told TODAY Thursday she was surprised the company reached out to her after she wrote them a letter. "I didn't think they were going to write me back because it took them awhile," said Kamryn Gardner, while noting she needs pockets to keep her hands warm and put things in them.

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Published Mentor Texts Referenced in Training

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Published Mentor Texts Referenced in Training

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Click below to make a copy!

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turtlediaries.com

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Put away your flashcards and workbooks and log on to see the new way to master educational skills! Top educators worked exclusively with Turtle Diary to create game after game with superior content and maximum fun for every child.

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Turtle Diary's games are not only educational, but incredibly fun. They can even be a bit competitive at times when you choose a multiplayer option.

Students can also link up with kids in their classes and play games specifically recommended by their teacher. This helps them master the exact concepts they are working on in their classroom. The possibilities are endless, and the fun is never-ending.

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Educational Games | Educational Games For Kids | Turtle Diary

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1000+ Free Educational Games for kids in Grade K to 5. Play Online and learn math, science, language arts, geography & much more only with our award winning educational website.

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Grace Lin and Laurie Keller answer this wonderful kid question: "If you were to become a character in your book, which would it be and why?"